Letters to the editor for Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Repeating often enough that New Yorkers will prosper from casinos might cause some people to believe it.

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recordonline.com

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Posted Aug. 13, 2013 at 2:00 AM

Posted Aug. 13, 2013 at 2:00 AM

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Repeating often enough that New Yorkers will prosper from casinos might cause some people to believe it.

What it won't do is address the damage state-sponsored casino gambling causes for our neighbors. I don't just mean neighbors afflicted with gambling disorders, estimated to be more than 500,000 state residents, excluding adolescents. I also mean their children and spouses, their friends and business partners, and anyone bearing consequences foisted upon them by out of control gamblers. If you believe as I do that New Yorkers shouldn't be expendable in the service of funding state education, then vote NO in November to expand casino gambling.

And it won't change the casino business model being promoted by our state government, one that preys upon the minority of gamblers with gambling disorders for an estimated 50 percent of casino revenues. If that business model strikes you as unworthy of taxpayer support, then vote NO in November to expand casino gambling.

And if it troubles you that in spite of the cheerleading to expand casino gambling, we still don't have an accounting for what's now estimated to be a $3.7 billion annual tab for New York's gambling problem, then you'd be right to be skeptical of the cheerleaders' song, and you should vote NO in November to expand casino gambling.

The Trojan Horse of casino gambling: what's inside matters.

Dave Colavito

Rock Hill

In an Aug. 4 article about how USDA Wildlife Services killed Canada geese in Cornwall to keep flying safe for humans, a Wildlife Services spokeswoman, Carol Bannerman, claimed that Canada geese had brought down a plane in Alaska killing all 24 crew members. She failed to say that that occurred in 1995! She also failed to present the report by the Avian Safety Network that evaluated the cause of the crash as being human caused. They attributed the crash to negligence by the group charged with detecting and deterring geese, and with the "tower controllers' failure to notify airfield management of the presence of geese." The evaluators of the crash wisely understood that the airport was in a migratory path, as are many airports, and that safety procedures had been ignored.

The airport where the accident occurred was Elmendorf Air Force Base outside of Anchorage. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has at least 12 areas nearby that produce waterfowl and other "game species." In a phone call to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, an agent claimed that two thirds of Alaska is a production area for waterfowl and other "game" species. Rather than blaming the victims of the greed of wildlife managers, the firearms industry, and Wildlife Services, cast blame instead on the perpetrators. Demand that wildlife management for hunting stop.

Cornwall officials should have done their homework. To say that killing geese was an ignorant decision is to put it mildly. Certainly it was barbaric.